Collaboration between Cinema City festival and Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz, Free Zone, and Association of movie fans “RARE” from Croatia will officially commence on 15.10. within the project “Fresh Danube Films”, supported by the European Cultural Foundation. The project, which will last one year, is designed with the aim of promoting and supporting cultural diversity and creative synergy of cinematographies along the Danube. The networking and educational platform for young talented authors will accentuate the immense potential and importance of the Danube region film art.
The initial event of the project will occur on 07.11. within the Free Zone, when project partners will be presented: organizers of the Crossing Europe Film Festival from Linz, Festival of Documentary Rock Film DORF from Croatia, Free Zone festival from Belgrade, and Cinema City festival from Novi Sad.
This will also be the occasion to officially present the programme of the project “Fresh Danube Films”, while visitors of the Free Zone festival will have the opportunity to see the Austrian film “Your Beauty Is Worth Nothing”, Huseyin Tabak’s directorial debut.
Organizers of the Cinema City festival, who are project leaders of the Fresh Danube Films, are particularly pleased to point out the value of cooperating with the partners of such excellent quality. Joint work on the project that is supported by the ECF will also present an opportunity to exhibit the value of this project through long-term results, which will reflect positively on young film artists and film industry of the Danube region.
Read on to learn more about the film that will be screened within the “Fresh Danube Films” project on 07.11. at 19h, at the Free Zone festival.
Your Beauty Is Worth Nothing
Austria, 2012, 86 min.
Director: Huseyin Tabak,
Synopsis
Twelve-year-old Veysel, who came to Vienna from Turkey with his parents, feels like a stranger in his new country. At school he doesn’t understand the language, and at home his family is on the verge of crisis. The only bright spot on Veysel’s horizon is his great love Ana, a classmate who knows nothing of his feelings. A neighbor named Cem, a kindhearted macho man with a complicated love life, helps the boy navigate between dream and reality. An exceptional talent of Austrian film, Hüseyin Tabak skillfully employs the contrast between the boy’s romantic-idyllic imagination and the stressful conditions in an immigrant community forced to live under the constant threat of deportation. The film’s title refers to a work by Turkish poet Asik Veysel, whose melancholy songs are beloved by his many compatriots spread throughout Europe. For the shy young outsider, a German translation of one of his poems represents more than a chance to make it in school; it may also help spark his beloved Ana’s interest. Abdulkadir Tuncer is outstanding in the lead role.
Director:
Hüseyin Tabak (b. 1981, Lemgo, Germany) is a German Kurd, the son of two migrant workers from Turkey. In 2003-2006 he worked in Hamburg on more than 20 feature films, starting out as a set intern, later working as everything from driver to assistant director. During this period he shot more than a dozen short films of his own. In 2006-2012 he studied directing and screenwriting with Michael Haneke and Peter Patzak at the Vienna Film Academy. His short film Cheeese… (2008) made the rounds of more than 60 festivals, winning 15 awards. In 2011 Tabak was awarded “for exemplary work and artistic values” from the Vienna Film Academy. The feature Your Beauty Is Worth Nothing… is his graduation project.
Festivals:
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2012
Montreal World Film Festival, 2012
Haifa International Film Festival, 2012
